


Roll away the day

by RedStarFiction



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: AU, F/M, Frasers Ridge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-06-10 16:02:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6963517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedStarFiction/pseuds/RedStarFiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fluff piece (possibly a series) about Jamie and Claire as they get older and their family grows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jamie closed his eyes and tipped his head back facing the sun. At Claire’s urging he had finally started handing over more of the managing of the estate to the younger lads and although he would probably never break the habit of being an early riser, he now spent most of his mornings at leisure. Thinking of Claire, he stretched his hand out towards her seat beside him in the sunshine and smiled as their fingers laced. Her skin was soft and crinkled with age, the back of each hand marked with faint brown freckles. Jamie could have located each one without ever opening his eyes and they often joked that they knew the back of each other’s hands better than their own.   
“Can ye believe we did it Sassenach?”  
He murmured  
“Did what?”  
Claire placed her book down on her lap and turned to face him.  
“All of this…”  
Jamie gestured with his free hand out across the garden and down the hill, sloping away from the big house toward Bree and Roger’s place and further on to Jem’s house, it’s newly finished roof just visible before the swell of the valley overtook it.   
Claire gave his hand a squeeze and sighed contentedly.   
“Some days I wonder if I’ll wake up and find it has all been a dream.”  
“Ah but what a dream it would have been!”  
Jamie grinned, the deep lines on either side of his mouth creasing with his wide smile.   
From the valley they could hear Jem calling out to Alexander and Ellen-Claire to come in for breakfast and their answering calls from considerably closer by. Claire turned and nudged Jamie who peered over the top of her head.  
“What are the two o’ ye doin’ up here?”  
“Looking for Aunty Mandy’s handkerchief Grandda.”  
Ellen-Claire answered, her bright red hair mostly covered with a cloth cap she must have borrowed from her father judging by the size of it.  
“The wind took it from the washing line.”  
Alex chimed in, momentarily abandoning the search to trot over to his great-grandparents.   
“Oh dear!”  
Claire kissed the little boys cheek and returned the hug he gave her before turning her attention to her little namesake.   
“Is it the blue and green checked one?”  
“It is!”  
Ellen-Claire, the very image of Bree at the same age, gaped at her great-grandmother in awe.  
“How did you know Grannie?”  
Claire produced the little square of fabric with a flourish and laughed at the incredulous expression on the children’s faces.  
“It snagged on the branch outside my bedroom window.”  
“Thank you Grannie!”  
They chorused and then glanced guiltily at each other as the deep rumble of their father’s voice reached them again, it’s tone considerably more firm than before.  
“Ye’d best get home.”  
Jamie advised and Alex nodded, grabbing his sister’s hand.  
“Aye Grandda.”  
“Will you be coming for lunch?”  
Ellen-Claire called over her shoulder as her brother towed her away  
“Aye a leannan, we’ll be there!”  
Jamie waved, hastily returning the kiss the little girl blew him.   
They sat back and watched the children hurry away towards home. Jamie let out a loud laugh as Ellen-Claire dropped and rolled down the rest of the slope with a shriek of delight, as arms stretched she tumbled.  
“Jem’ll collar her if she manages to rip another frock!”  
“Hardly! Do you remember all the shirts and trousers Bree had to darn for him?”  
Claire retorted and Jamie grinned  
“Aye and I remember his grandmother hiding him away in her surgery until the coast was clear!”  
Claire pretended to feign nonchalance and then pointed triumphantly as she saw Bree hurry out of her garden and set about tidying the little girl up before sending her on to her father.  
“See! It’s a grannie thing!”  
Jamie shook his head ruefully  
“I still canna think o’ our Brianna as a grandmother, can ye Sassenach?”  
“It certainly makes me feel my age a little more.”  
Claire agreed, the nudged Jamie   
“Look at Alex!”  
“He looks like Roger Mac doesn’t he?”  
Jamie commented softly and Claire nodded, it was true. Alexander may have been named for Jamie but the boy looked uncannily like Roger, his hair and eyes and the way he held himself were all Mackenzie.  
“I always …”  
Jamie bit his lip and looked uncharacteristically bashful  
“I always wondered, ken? About Jem and his father … I mean, o’ course Roger Mac was his Da but wi’ the …”  
Claire caught hold of his hand and brought his fingers to her lips.   
“I know but there is a lot of Roger about Jem too, the way he is …”  
“Och aye, o’ course but it’s nice for Roger Mac to see it.”  
“It is.”  
Claire agreed and stood, stretching her back and taking a couple of tottering steps before finding her balance. Jamie heaved himself up beside her with a grunt of effort. Still powerfully built, even at eighty-three, Jamie stood straight and tall, only a slight twitch of his facial muscles betraying the ache in his back after being sat for so long.   
“Sassenach?”  
“Mmm?”  
“I have a verra daft thought but I wonder if ye’ll indulge me?”  
“You know your stomach can’t handle boar steak for breakfast, so don’t even ask.”   
Claire laughed and Jamie grinned down at her  
“My stomach isna the problem but the chef maybe needed a little more … ach!!”  
Claire pokeded him playfully in the ribs, relaxing into his arms as he caught her wrist and drew her in close, resting his chin atop her head.  
“Will ye roll down the hill wi’ me?”  
“What?”  
Claire turned in his arms and looked up at him as if he’d gone mad.  
“I just remembered how much fun Jenny and I used to have as bairns …”  
Claire laughed and shook her head  
“I’ll be lucky if I don’t break a hip! And what about your back?”  
“We’ve survived worse than a wee tumble!”  
Jamie chuckled and moved around Claire, sitting himself down at the top of the slope  
“Come on Sassenach, I’ll let ye land on me!”  
Claire rolled her eyes but couldn’t deny the sense of excitement that bubbled in her at the prospect of rolling down a grassy slope again. She hadn’t done it since Mandy was little and she wasn’t getting any younger … Carpe Diem, Beaucamp! She thought to herself.   
“Alright! Hold on!”  
She hastily joined Jamie and giggling, they both laid down, Jamie on the left and Claire to his right.  
“After all these years ye still guard my weaker side, eh Sassenach?”  
Claire snorted  
“I expect I’m about to crash into it and break something, but if you call that guarding …”  
“Mama? Da? What are you doing?”  
Claire squinted down the hill and could just make out Brianna, hands on hips, peering up at them.  
“Quick! We’re about to get rumbled!”  
She hissed  
“GO!”   
Claire rocked onto her hip and then launched herself downwards, already aware of the dull sound of Jamie’s body lightly thumping the ground over and over and the exuberant breathy shriek he let out, not too dissimilar to his great-granddaughters.  
The grass and sky looped end over end as Claire rolled and she let out her own whoop of glee as she gathered speed, too breathless to laugh but grinning like a loon the entire time.  
She had expected to collide with a tree or her husband or something else hard and unyielding but instead she came to a gentle stop as the ground evened out and peered out from under her hair to see Bree hurrying forward and Jamie sitting up, flushed and smiling.   
“Have you two lost your minds?”  
“Perhaps,”  
Jamie laughed as Bree held out a hand and helped him to his feet.  
“But when ye get this old lass, ye need a wee reminder that ye’re alive now and then.”


	2. A growing family.

Jamie sat with Roger and Jem beside the fire, the whisky flowed freely and the conversation was light and easy between them. Jem stood to prod one of the blackened logs into the flames a little further and smiled as it splintered with a shower of sparks.   
“How much longer do ye think it will be?”  
“Not much longer.”  
Roger smiled, placing a hand lightly on his son’s knee.   
“Do ye think she’ll have a lad or a lassie this time?”  
Jamie asked and Jem grinned  
“Well I ken Ellen-Claire is hoping for a wee sister, but Alex and I dinna wish to be outnumbered!”  
Jamie laughed and nodded  
“Ye Grannie says she thinks ye’ll ha’ another laddie.”  
“Does she?”  
“Aye. So she says and ye ken how canny she is about such matters!”   
Roger snorted gently  
“Aye, she gets cannier wi’ age too!”  
“That she does!”  
Jamie laughed and felt his heart tug a little at the thought of his wife. To Jem and the others she was wise and canny and a gifted healer and it was true that he saw all those qualities in her as well, but to Jamie she was still the fierce and beautiful Sassenach lass that Murtagh dragged into a dingy wee hut in the middle of the Scottish highlands sixty years previously. When he saw her, he saw all of her. He saw the marks age had made on her skin and the light that still shone in those golden eyes. He saw the white strands of her hair, now outnumbering the brown and grey, and he treasured each one for they were the trophies of aging, of refusing to surrender. At night when the room was too hot to close the windows and draw the curtains, he often looked down at her head, nestled on his chest and noticed how the moonlight caught those beautiful white strands and they shone, brighter than he would have thought possible.   
“Jem?”  
Mandy slipped down the stairs, her footsteps silent as always, and stepped into the firelight. Jem and Roger stood eagerly  
“You have another son, come say hi!”  
“A son?”  
Jem’s face lit up and he seized his sister around her waist swinging her around with joy before bounding for the stairs, closely followed by Roger.  
“Are you not going up Grandda?”  
Mandy asked, plopping down in Jem’s seat and gratefully taking the whisky Jamie offered her.  
“Och no. In a little while, but I dinna wish to crowd them.”  
Mandy grinned  
“Fair enough. Slante!”  
“Slante!”  
Jamie raised his glass and both drank.  
“Was it an easy birth?”  
“Aye, Margaret did well. Grannie was ready for anything of course, but in the event we hardly had to do a thing.”  
“Is ye Grannie alright? No’ too tired?”  
Mandy rolled her eyes  
“Do ye think she’d let on even if she was?”  
Jamie grinned and shook his head, surveying Mandy over the edge of his glass. Bree and Jem and wee-Ellen Claire were all of his colouring. Wee Alex was like a mini-Roger but Mandy … his dear lass, she was her grandmother’s image. The way she talked and the small crease between her brows when she was fashed over something, her hair was like Claire’s exactly and her smile too and Jamie was truly glad of it.   
Jem’s heavy footfall on the stairs interrupted Jamie’s thoughts and he looked up to see his grandson carrying the newest member of the family, a smile of such gentle pride on his face it made Jamie’s heart swell.  
“Grandda, meet Thomas Brian Fraser Mackenzie.”  
Jamie took the proffered bundle and beamed down at the wean   
“Halo Thomas. Ciamar a tha thu?”  
The baby yawned and Jamie Fraser fell in love all over again. He blinked away the tears that threatened to overwhelm him and in a thick voice managed to say  
“He’s verra bonnie Jem, congratulations laddie.”  
Looking down at the little lad Jamie thought suddenly of the cave and of the prisons he had been held in and knew with a certainty that anything he had endured that led him to this moment and the moment’s like it he had been blessed with was worth it. It had all been worth it.


	3. Courting.

Jamie no longer carried the weans on his shoulders, his back was liable to seize up suddenly and although he hadn’t fallen for nearly two years, the thought of toppling over with wee Ellen-Claire or Thomas alarmed him. Still, as he walked side by side with Roger, Thomas was able to reach over and pat his head occasionally, something which seemed to give the little lad no end of giggles.  
“Grandda?”  
“Mmm?”  
Ellen-Claire looked up at Jamie with wide blue eyes and a cheeky grin on her face  
“Does Grannie have any apple cakes left at your house?”  
Jamie pretended to think for a moment  
“Hmmm, I dinna ken. She may have some but they’d be for after supper surely.”  
The little girl tugged on his sleeve and tiptoed, her voice dropping to a stage whisper  
“I’ll split one wi’ ye!”  
Jamie nodded sagely and tapped his nose in a conspiratorially. It was a regular wee game they played and in truth, it worked as well for Jamie as for the bairns, it was the only way he could persuade Claire to let him eat between meals, something about his metabolism slowing down or some such.   
“D’ye hear Mandy is courting young Frederick McAdams?”  
Roger smiled and Jamie raised his eyebrows  
“Is she then? How long have they been seeing each other?”  
Roger grinned and shrugged  
“She tells me it’s been a couple of weeks but I’d wager Bree kens different.”  
Jamie grunted and smiled at his son-in-law  
“No’ a bad match. Good family, hard worker…”  
“Och! Aye, the lad seems decent enough …”  
Jamie eyed Roger with thinly veiled amusement as he trailed off, a small frown between his brows.  
“I ken from experience, it’s no’ easy when ye daughter marries.”  
Jamie offered nonchalantly and Roger grimaced  
“Aye, weel, I dinna intend to see the lad sold to the Iroquois but I’d as soon she waited a bit before mentioning marriage.”  
“She’s twenty-four, man!”  
Jamie laughed and clapped a hand on Roger’s back, forcing the younger man into a reluctant smile.  
“I ken, but she’s my wee lass.”  
Jamie nodded, he did understand, truly. Mandy had been the missing link to all the years lost with Brianna. Jem was Jamie’s pride and joy of course, his first grandchild and a boy! He was Jamie’s heir, blood of his blood and Jamie had doted on the lad since the day of his birth. All the same, with Mandy there was something more open. Jamie had no expectations of Mandy, he didn’t expect her to grow up and take his place, to be a leader of men and follow in his footsteps in the way he did with Jem; and so Mandy was an open book. Jamie watched her grow and helped raise her with a freedom he had never imagined was possible. When she had developed Claire’s passion for healing he nurtured it, when she had taken an interest in chess and shown an aptitude for it that could rival Jamie’s own, he had been utterly thrilled. The thought of his granddaughter marrying was unsettling and yet at the same time, he looked forward to walking with her and listening to her stories as she found her way through marriage, just the same as she had with school. But then he was an old man and noticed that more and more he tended to see the world in the measured and even tones that old people see and for all the love he held for the lass, Mandy was not his child. He softened his voice and laid a gentle hand on Roger’s elbow.  
“Ye ken the Mackenzie women ha’ a mind o’ their own, Roger Mac. Ye dinna need to fret o’er the lass being pressed into something she doesna want.”  
Roger nodded and shrugged his shoulders   
“I’ll still be havin’ a word wi’ young Freddie mind!”  
Jamie laughed  
“Aye, and if ye dinna terrify the lad out o’ his wits, tell Mandy to bring him round for tea soon, Claire will want to meet him properly.”


	4. Wedding pt 1

Mandy's wedding was set to take place on the first Sunday in September as the leaves began to redden in preparation for the fall. She chose a dress in cream and sky blue wool, her black hair intricately plaited by Jem's wife Margaret, cascaded down her back in stark contrast to the light colours of her dress. When Mandy removed her riding cloak and presented herself to Brianna and Claire in the cabin behind the church, both women buried their noses in handkerchiefs and blinked rapidly whilst Mandy laughed and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders, squeezing tightly.  
“Mama! Really!”  
She exclaimed teasingly as Bree dabbed her eyes  
“You look incredible, darling.”  
Claire beamed, eyes bright with unshed tears, reaching to tuck a single wayward curl behind Mandy's ear.  
“Thank ye Grannie.”  
Mandy kissed her grandmother's cheek, breathing in the familiar scent of herbs and … lemons!   
“Grannie! Did ye bake a lemon cake?”  
“Well it's not every day that ones only granddaughter gets married!”  
Claire laughed, then, glancing at Brianna she cleared her throat   
“I'll go and see how the boys are doing.”  
Bree waited for the door to click shut before gently enveloping her daughter in her arms.  
“Amanda Mackenzie, Freddie is the luckiest man that ever lived!”  
She breathed, kissing the crown of her daughters head.   
“He knows!”  
Mandy grinned  
“Daddy and Grandda made sure of it!”  
“Did they?”  
Bree laughed and Mandy rolled her eyes in mock dismay  
“Aye, they did! And Jem – it's a wonder I'm getting married at all!”  
“But you are.”  
Bree sighed, her expression softening into one of rapt awe.   
“How can my baby girl be getting married already?”  
Mandy's lip quirked upwards, it was the one facial expression in which she looked exactly like Jem, Bree and Jamie and Brianna felt her eyes welling up again.  
“I have a gift for you,”  
She said hastily and reached into the pocked of her dress, a deeper blue than her daughters.  
“These were given to your great-grandmother and passed down to your grand-father, he gave them to Grannie on their wedding night and she gave them to me...”  
Bree held the pearls out across the splay of her fingers for Mandy's inspection, despite the fact that the girl had seen them many times before.   
“Oh Mama! Your pearls! I couldn't ...”  
Bree carefully lifted the necklace over her daughter's head and laid them against her chest.  
“Yes you could, and you should. They suit you beautifully baby.”  
Bree stepped back, admiring the pale stones against her daughters skin.   
“I love you more than the moon and stars Amanda, and I wish you every happiness.”  
She murmured, the Gaelic felt natural on her lips after all these years, though she tended to only speak it with Jamie or to say something particularly heartfelt to Roger or the kids.   
“Thank you Mama.”  
Mandy smiled, a little overwhelmed. Bree squeezed her daughters hands gently  
“Come on, your father will be getting impatient to see you!”  
Mandy nodded and with one final smoothing motion down her skirts she followed her mother out into the sunlight.  
*  
Roger and Jem were both stood in their highland best, the Mackenzie tartan bright against the backdrop of golden red leafs. Roger, still tall and handsome approaching sixty, his hair greying around the temples was otherwise still inky black had his head thrown back, laughing at something Jem had said. The sight of her son filled Brianna's chest with pride. At thirty years old Jem was at the peak of his manhood and, Claire assured her, the very image of his grandfather as a young man. His hair a deep, rich auburn, glinting ruby sparks in the sunlight. Jem spotted Bree and Mandy first and he hastily nudged his father, his wide mouth turned upwards in a beautific smile.  
Roger gaped his daughter for a moment and then stepped forward, hands outstretched.  
“Oh lass.”  
His throat caught, as it still sometimes did when he was particularly moved.  
Roger cupped his daughter's face reverently in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead.  
“You are more brilliant than the sun, my darling, darling girl.”  
“Daddy,”  
Mandy dashed a hand hastily beneath her eyes and blinked for all she was worth.  
“Don't make me cry! You know how blotchy I get when I cry!”  
She admonished, smiling up at the first man she had loved and to Roger, in that moment his daughter really did outshine the sun itself.   
“Shall we go?”  
“Aye, ha' ye seen ye grandfather, Jem?”  
Jem nodded toward the chapel.  
“He's havin' a quiet moment Da.”  
“Is he not feeling well?”  
Mandy's brow creased in concern and she looked to Bree uncertainly  
“Do you think this is too much for him Mama?”  
Bree shook her head and smiled softly but it was Jem who answered  
“Dinna be daft Mand! Ye ken he's likely either having a word with God or tryin' to find a Catholic priest hidden away in the rafters and something to clonk Da over the heid wi' if he finds one!”  
Mandy rolled her eyes but grinned gratefully at her brother. His accent, normally faint, was thickened by a few drams of whisky and her heart squeezed with love for him.  
“Ye dinna think he really minds do ye?”  
Roger mused, running a hand through his hair anxiously  
“His daughter is married to a Presbyterian after all!”  
“No, he doesn't mind!”  
Bree gave her son a warning look as Jem opened his mouth and he obligingly shut it again.  
“Besides, if you're doing the ceremony it means he gets to escort Mandy down the aisle.”  
Roger's face relaxed instantly, his brow smoothing to it's usual weathered lines.  
“Aye that's true enough.”  
Jem nodded and clapped a hand on his father's shoulder  
“How do ye feel then? Both ye bairns married off and out from under your feet?”  
“Old lad. I feel old!”  
Roger laughed, snaking an arm around Bree's slender hips and drawing her close to him.   
“But I wouldna trade it for the world.”  
“Not even a chilled carton of orange juice?”  
Bree teased and Roger's grin widened. It was a game they seldom played any more, a modern convenience or treat for trade. Jem rolled his eyes again and moved off in search of Margaret and the bairns.  
“Not even for three bottles of ketchup.”  
Bree raised her eyebrows in mock-shock.   
“Wow! OK, Kids. You're loved!”  
She declared throwing her hands up. Roger kissed her cheek and patted her bum reprovingly  
“Dinna mock ye husband on such an emotional day!”  
“I see Grandda!”  
Mandy called and set off at a trot, skirts gathered up around her.  
“Do ye think ...”  
“I do.”  
Bree answered firmly, knowing that poor Freddie's suitability was about to be questioned yet again.  
“Mpphhmm. Alright.”  
Arm in arm the Mackenzie's followed their daughter toward the tall red-headed figure she was chasing.


End file.
